Residents Meet To Protest Big-Box Retail, Apartment Development (Video)

"Not in their neighborhood," came the word at The Palms Community Church on Bloomingdale Avenue in Valrico, where residents gathered Tuesday night, May 14, to protest big-box retail and apartment development just up the road to the east.

Having outgrown the much smaller meeting space at the Bloomingdale Regional Library — where the group loosely defined as "No Bloomingdale Big Box" and "Say No to the Big Box" had been meeting — the group Tuesday nightly aptly filled the church at 1310 East Bloomingdale Ave.

The meeting came on the eve of the May 15 meeting of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, at the Fred B. Karl County Center in Tampa. Word circulated Tuesday night that Commissioner Ken Hagan had added an item to the agenda, at 11 a.m. time certain, to discuss a transportation issue related to the project's immediate vicinity.

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For more on the May 14 meeting, and links to additional coverage, see Residents Flock to Big-Box Meeting at Bloomingdale Church, posted at Bloomingdale-Riverview Patch.

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